Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-02-08

safety, that I deemed it waste of time and
money to make exact measurements. After
looking over the conditions there and cOnsd-
ering the probable growth of the place, |
consider that any system which does not
contemplate delivering at the corner of Mt
Desert and Cottage streets an average of
4 100000 gallons per day is not proper
tenn to supply Bar Harbpr That is the
lowest estimate to which should be willing
to commit myself. Mr.. Jessup aud Mr.. Fox
spoke to me of their trouble nth the water,
and 50 did other people, and have taken
some pains to get the heights of their tanks
above the sea- and as near as l can learn the
facts after talking with people who have had
trouble, fairly complete service can be had
up to 95 feet above high tide level of the sea,
and from there up it steadily failed. The
highest tank that knew had failed is about
l4S feet above the sea. At Mr.. Blaine's cot
tage. where there was an absolute failure, the
tank is l40 feet. The Hopkins cottage, on
Eagle Lake road, where they got no dav sup
ply, the faucet is ll5 feet elevation. The
floor of the St Sauveur on which the first
failures began to occur is about s. feet, and
at the Malvern where there was failure the
height is SO feet. The fact was evident that
there is a zone upon which the water supply
was intermittent, and by that | mean points
above a certain elevation. In this zone lies
some of the most valuable land in Bar Har-
Dor. There is no difficulty in giving proper
supply of water to this zone, and to my mind
it is as important that it should have it as any
other district in the place.
The fundamental difficulty in furnishing by
the present works the necessary amount of
water is that the 10-inch main throttles the
whole supply. / was asked to examine the
distributing system. l looked over the place
and find it open to very serious objections.
The sizes of the pipes and mains are such as
to afford no sufficient fire protection except
on Cottage street. No engineer who
planning water works would be willing to in
dorse such plan as this and say it was a
proper fire protection for the place. The
mains should be 6-inch at least From san
itary point Of view he system is very defec-
tive on account of dead ends and no means at
the ends for blowing off the sediment which
accumulates in pipes and renders the water
unwholesome, and in certain cases seriously
So This is not proper plan because there
are not circuits so that the water can circu-
late and thus avoid stagnation. The effect
of small pipe is to reduce the head of water
by friction. The smaller the pipe the greater
the friction, and the farther the pipe extends
the more the friction. Fer permanent sup
ply there is no value in the present dis
tributing system except the s inch pipe on
Cottage street, and there is none in the 10
inch main in Eden street, for that throttles
the whole supply. There is no permanent
value to the II inch pipe which leads up to
The dam. on account of the way it is laid
And this means condemnation of the whole
system, root, stem and branches.
/, is hard to describe the feelings of the
people there with regard to this matter of
water. They feel that it is all important.
The expressions of opinions that came to me
from all these gentlemen were that it was
vital to the community. As to the character
and motives of these gentlemen, have no
doubt that their object is sufficient supply
of pure and wholesome water for the preser-
Walton of their health and of their homes |
have heard the honorable counsel speak of
these gentlemen as "speculators.' but that is
not the idea have gathered from nv con-
nection with the matter. 1t was impres sed
upon me that these gentlemen felt, and with
very good reason, that the health and lives
of themselves and of their families were in
danger.